Will precious bronze artifacts be auctioned off overseas? How does this female prosecutor in Shanghai crack down on the entire chain of cultural relic trafficking industry

From a financial case worth billions of dollars, to a shocking malignant case, and then to the country's first case at the grassroots procuratorate... The undertaker of these serious cases is a young female prosecutor named Ma Weiwei, who has a delicate appearance and a refined demeanor.

From an ordinary prosecutor to a model procurator in the new era of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ma Weiwei has always adhered to the original intention of justice for the people and justice, and has made outstanding achievements in different jobs. He has successively won the honors of "Peace Star" of the Central Political and Legal Commission, outstanding Communist Party member of Shanghai, exemplary individual of Shanghai, "Peace Hero" of Shanghai, "March 8th Red Bannerman of Shanghai", and "May 4th Youth Medal of Shanghai".

A resilient prosecutor

In July 2005, Ma Weiwei, who had been working at the First Branch of the Shanghai Procuratorate for two years, volunteered to join the Public Prosecution Office. "At first, what attracted me was the prosecutor's chivalrous tenderness in upholding justice in court. It wasn't until I truly became a prosecutor that I realized 'decisive battle in court, decisive victory in front of court'," said Ma Weiwei.

According to regulations, the First Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate handles major first instance criminal cases that may be sentenced to life imprisonment or more, including serious violent cases such as intentional homicide, intentional injury to death, robbery and murder. In daily life, Ma Weiwei dare not even watch horror movies, but when looking at the bloody scene photos, autopsy reports, and investigation reports in the case files, she is particularly serious in order to restore the truth as much as possible.

"She has a resilience and is particularly capable of studying." Gu Jia, the director of the Second Prosecutor's Department of the Municipal Procuratorate, has worked with Ma Weiwei for many years and witnessed her successfully handling one difficult and complex case after another with the spirit of "nailing nails".

Ma Weiwei is interrogating suspect

During his work at the First Branch, Ma Weiwei also led the handling of multiple major financial criminal cases, such as the first case in China of manipulating the futures market through high-frequency trading, and fundraising fraud cases involving the Shanlin, Dadaobao, and Zhengda factions. There was a scene that left a particularly deep impression on Gu Jia. Once, multiple victims of illegal fundraising cases came to a branch, and Ma Weiwei spent a whole afternoon receiving them, patiently listening to their demands, and explaining the law and reasoning. When it was already dark and the victim returned home for dinner, Ma Weiwei hurried back to the office to continue sorting through a mountain of files and studying relevant laws and regulations in the financial regulatory field.

With this resilience, Ma Weiwei not only successfully handled major cases, but also took the lead in summarizing and forming a case template for fundraising fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits in the city, providing an example for handling such cases in the future.

A leader with fiery eyes and golden eyes

In June 2021, Ma Weiwei left the First Branch of the Municipal Procuratorate and has been serving as a member of the Party Group and Deputy Prosecutor General at the Xuhui District Procuratorate until now.

"This is a brand new challenge for me," Ma Weiwei said. While I could spend one or two months focusing on polishing one case at the first branch, the pace of work at the district procuratorate has noticeably accelerated. The grassroots procuratorates handle daily "small cases" that occur around the people, and they have to review more than ten cases in a day, with a wider range of types than before.

However, what has changed is the job position and job content, and what remains unchanged is Ma Weiwei's rigorous and serious attitude towards handling cases and his unremitting pursuit of case quality. Tong Jun, the director of the Second Prosecutor's Department of Xuhui District Procuratorate, was deeply impressed by this.

Once, the Xuhui District Procuratorate handled a minor criminal case. After examination, the prosecutor in charge decided not to prosecute because the case was of little social harm and the suspect pleaded guilty to punishment. Such cases are quite common in grassroots procuratorial organs. Therefore, when the decision not to prosecute was handed over to Tong Jun, he looked at the facts of the case and found no problem, so he submitted it to the deputy prosecutor in charge, Ma Weiwei, for approval.

"When the approved legal document was returned to me, I found a modification on it," said Tong Jun. It was then that he noticed that the last sentence of the non prosecution decision did not fully comply with the legal document format. "Although this was just a 'minor flaw' in a 'small case', Ma Jian did not let it go, which is also a reminder and urging for us to handle the case without any carelessness."

Ma Weiwei and colleagues held a meeting to discuss and judge the case

When handling a series of cases involving the resale of cultural relics such as the bronze artifacts of "Zeng Boke's father", this serious effort was fully demonstrated. In March 2019, the National Cutural Heritage Administration received a tip that an auction company in Japan planned to auction the "Zeng Buke Fu" bronze group ware recently, which was suspected to be an illegally lost cultural relic in China. After the National Cutural Heritage Administration confirmed that this cultural relic was indeed a precious cultural relic stolen and smuggled out of China recently, it immediately started the relevant criminal investigation and recovery of lost cultural relics together with the Ministry of Public Security.

The procuratorial special office team led by Ma Weiwei intervened in advance, guiding the public security organs to investigate and collect evidence, fixing key evidence such as collusion behavior, reselling of cultural relics, reselling transportation methods, and transaction amounts, laying the foundation for subsequent case handling. At the same time, she also led the team to supervise the filing of cases, correct missed arrests, and crack down on the entire industry chain of reselling cultural relics.

On October 26, 2021, the Xuhui Public Security Bureau requested approval for the arrest of Wu, Wen, and Jiao on suspicion of reselling cultural relics. Through Jiao's confession, Ma Weiwei keenly realized that one of his previous family members, Niu, was suspected of a serious crime, and thus carried out case filing supervision. After Niu arrived at the scene, Ma Weiwei discovered that Niu also had his previous family member Liu, so he pursued him in accordance with the law.

A balanced person who is not satisfied with "finishing"

Working at the Xuhui District Prosecutor's Office for over two years, Ma Weiwei has handled and approved many cases, including the first nationwide case of counterfeiting a "green food" certification trademark, which left a deep impression on her.

From December 2021 to January 2022, Deng Moubin, Deng Mouqing, and others, the actual leaders of the farmer cooperative, commissioned others to produce green food logos and geographical indications for agricultural products without obtaining authorization from the rights holder, and attached them to counterfeit strawberry bags of a well-known brand in the city for external sales, with a sales amount exceeding 220000 yuan. On August 3, 2022, Deng and others were transferred to the Xuhui District Procuratorate for examination and arrest on suspicion of counterfeiting registered trademarks.

The review found that the involved enterprise has stable distribution and operation in the Shanghai fruit and vegetable market, and is a fruit and vegetable supply guarantee enterprise for Shanghai citizens during the epidemic. Now, due to the criminal detention of Deng Moubin and other main business personnel, the two involved enterprises are operating due to supply chain interruption, and other legitimate business purchasers are gradually interrupting cooperation, connecting with farmers for unsold fruits and vegetables, and hundreds of employees are forced to work at home.

"A case can't be caught and sued at once. We should consider comprehensively and prudently in accordance with the law when it comes to the survival of the enterprise." After a comprehensive evaluation of the case, Ma Weiwei decided to take non custodial measures against the suspect to help the enterprise resume normal production and operation, start enterprise compliance, establish a third-party supervision and evaluation organization composed of the Market Supervision Bureau, lawyers and intellectual property experts, and understand, evaluate, supervise and investigate the effectiveness of the compliance rectification plans and relevant compliance management systems of the two enterprises involved in the case. Considering that the planting bases of the two companies are located in other places, the Xuhui District Prosecutor's Office has also requested the Nantong Tongzhou Bay Prosecutor's Office in Jiangsu Province to conduct individual interviews with local farmers, conduct on-site visits to inspect production and processing bases, and provide feedback on relevant opinions through social investigations and compliance inspections.

After the participation of the people's supervisors in public hearings, on-site visits to the involved enterprises, and third-party compliance inspections, on February 28, 2023, the Xuhui District Procuratorate made a decision not to prosecute Deng Moubin, Deng Mouqing, and others in accordance with the law, and gave them a stern warning for their criminal behavior. They also submitted a prosecution opinion to the relevant administrative departments for lenient punishment.

Ma Weiwei is reviewing the case file

In a recent follow-up visit, Ma Weiwei learned that the two companies are currently developing well, with the addition of the "Shanghai Food Strict Selection" trademark registration. The production and operation situation has doubled, providing more job opportunities, which makes her feel very pleased.

"Ma Jian often guides us and also needs to put more effort into handling minor offenses, not only completing cases, but also considering the organic unity of political, social, and legal effects." said Cao Lu, Deputy Director of the First Procuratorate Department of Xuhui District Procuratorate.